Pages

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Avatar Dragon Fighter Electric Gyro RC Helicopter

When the Avatar Dragon Fighter showed up on my desk
I was quite excited. We have a lot of 3 channel gyro helicopters at Hobbytron
in all kinds of sizes and I’ve flown most of them. But the Avatar Dragon
Fighter is different, it’s special. It is the first ever gyro helicopter with 4
channel control. Get excited. Gyro technology is the new tech that is just
redefining the RC helicopter world. For an explanation of how gyros work on RC
helicopters you can check out the blog post on the PhantomS107,
but essentially they make flying RC helicopters a lot easier. Especially for
beginners, a gyro will save you all kinds of hassle when learning how to fly.
But so far gyro helicopters have only been offered with 3 channel control. The
Avatar Dragon Fighter is here to change all that. A helicopter with 3 channel
control can go forward, backward, up down, rotate left, rotate right, and
hover. A helicopter with 4 channel control can also strafe, meaning you can go
left or right without first rotating in that direction. It may not sound like
much but when doing aerial maneuvers it adds a lot of possibilities. It also
adds a little bit more complication to the controls, so it will keep you busy
longer. Online forums and other mediums of RC helicopter discussion generally
suggest that people get a 4 channel helicopter for their first one. Now you can
have your 4 channel controls, and still have the added stability of a gyro. And
oh yeah, it fits in the palm of your hand.

First things first, this helicopter looks really
cool. It has crazy science fiction-y stabilizing rotors on either side that
look they belong on something built by Doc Brown. I think if this helicopter
hit eighty-eight miles an hour we might see some serious…well anyway it looks
really cool. In the box you get a USB charger, a replacement rear rotor, a
replacement stabilizing rotor, and two replacement main rotor blades. That’s
quite a goody bag, the USB chargers are incredibly convenient and don’t drain
the remote’s batteries, and all the replacement blades and rotors should keep
you going for a long time. The remote is pretty basic, takes 6 AA’s, and of
course has a throttle stick that goes in all 4 directions for strafing. You can
also switch it between 3 frequencies – a feature you don’t usually get with
helicopters in this price range. The instruction manual says it takes over 40
minutes to charge, but I have to say mine only took about 25 minutes.

When you turn on the Avatar Dragon Fighter you might
notice it has really cool LED lights. Basically all of the coaxial gyro helicopters at Hobbytron have LED lights but for some reason I really like
where they put them on the Dragon Fighter. Mine were a really pleasing purple
color as well, a nice change from the generally red & blue standard. It
goes well with the sci-fi theme. The Avatar Dragon Fighter takes off and flies
much like a standard 3 channel gyro helicopter, but has its own unique feel. It
finds a nice balance between the robotic precision of the Phantom S107 and the
more realistic flight of our larger gyro helicopters, like the Legend 9050.
Everything works like it should and if you have flown a 3ch gyro helicopter
before then you should have no problem with the Avatar Dragon Fighter. If you are a complete beginner it is slightly
harder to control than something like the Phantom or even the SkyAce 9099, but is by no means harrowing. It should only take
a few flights for basically anybody to master the controls. The 4 channel
aspect of this helicopter, namely the ability to be strafe, seems to be the
reason for the stabilizing rotors. In fact I’m not sure they are even for
stabilization, because they don’t seem to even spin during normal flight. When
you push the throttle stick left or right to strafe, they start spinning and make
it happen. It actually works very well, and they also make a cool whirring
noise that sounds totally unique, easily distinguishable from the noise being
put out by the main and rear rotors. The Avatar Dragon Fighter is really fun to
fly, and the extra dimension added by the 4 channel controls should keep you
busy for quite a while.

Of course the Avatar Dragon Fighter features the
same durable construction as Hobbytron’s 3 channel gyro helicopters, with a
lightweight metal frame and extremely flexible main rotor blades. Especially
with the smaller helicopters like the Avatar Dragon Fighter, these guys are
pretty indestructible. Over the last few days I’ve played with basically all of
the new ones, and had my share of crashes, and they have all been completely
fine. I did pretty well with the Avatar Dragon Fighter, but it did have a
couple small run-ins with walls and ceilings, and is no worse for the wear. If
you do break something, parts are easy to find and replace.

The Avatar Dragon Fighter really is an incredible
machine. Gyro tech and 4 channel control are amazing features by themselves,
and now are finally brought together in one helicopter. It’s pretty amazing
with how complicated gyros are that they can even put one on such a small
helicopter, let alone with 4 channel control. I really like the micro
helicopters because of how convenient they are, especially with the USB
chargers. You can keep them in your office or wherever and goof around for 10
minutes whenever you want; it makes for great stress reduction. They cost
basically nothing but can be as much fun as their larger, more complicated
brethren. Now you can own a micro helicopter with the latest cutting edge
technology for the price of a meal at Friday’s. And that, my friend, is a
beautiful thing.